Why do languages die? | The Economist
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0:01 - 0:05♪ (classical music) ♪
-
0:06 - 0:07Irankarapte.
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0:07 - 0:10♪ (classical music) ♪
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0:10 - 0:11Iishu.
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0:11 - 0:13♪ (classical music) ♪
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0:13 - 0:14Dydh da.
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0:14 - 0:16♪ (classical music) ♪
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0:16 - 0:18I don't speak those languages.
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0:18 - 0:20In fact, very few people do.
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0:20 - 0:22They're used only by a handful of people,
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0:22 - 0:25and all those languages
are in danger of extinction. -
0:26 - 0:29There are more than 7,000 languages
spoken in the world today, -
0:29 - 0:33but about a third of those
have fewer than 1,000 speakers, -
0:33 - 0:34and according to UNESCO,
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0:34 - 0:38more than 40% of those languages
are in danger of extinction. -
0:38 - 0:40In fact, every fortnight,
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0:40 - 0:42one of the world's languages
disappears forever. -
0:43 - 0:47When you say dead language,
many people think of Latin. -
0:47 - 0:49But Latin actually never died.
-
0:49 - 0:52It's been spoken continuously
since the time of the Caesars, -
0:52 - 0:55but it changed very gradually
over 2,000 years -
0:55 - 0:59until it became French, Spanish,
and other Romance languages. -
1:00 - 1:02True language death happens
-
1:02 - 1:04when communities switched
to other languages, -
1:04 - 1:07and parents stopped raising their children
to speak their old one. -
1:08 - 1:10When the last elderly speaker dies,
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1:10 - 1:14the language is unlikely
ever to be spoken fluently again. -
1:15 - 1:18If you look at this chart,
which measures the world's languages -
1:18 - 1:21in terms of their size
and their state of health, -
1:21 - 1:24you can see that most languages
are ranked in the middle. -
1:25 - 1:27English, like just a few other
dominant languages, -
1:27 - 1:29is up at the top left-hand corner.
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1:29 - 1:31It's in a really strong state.
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1:32 - 1:33But if your language is down here
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1:33 - 1:36in the bottom right-hand
corner of the graph, -
1:36 - 1:39like Kayapulau from Indonesia
or Kuruaya from Brazil, -
1:39 - 1:41you are in serious trouble.
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1:42 - 1:43In the bad old days,
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1:43 - 1:46governments just banned
languages they didn't like. -
1:46 - 1:48But sometimes the pressure is more subtle.
-
1:48 - 1:49(tank firing sound)
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1:49 - 1:52Any teenager growing up
in the Soviet Union -
1:52 - 1:55soon realized that whatever language
you spoke at home, -
1:55 - 1:58mastering Russian was going to be
the key to success. -
1:59 - 2:01Citizens in China, including Tibetans,
-
2:01 - 2:04as well as speakers
of Shanghainese or Cantonese -
2:04 - 2:08face similar pressure today
to focus on Mandarin. -
2:08 - 2:09♪ (classical music) ♪
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2:09 - 2:10Once a language is gone,
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2:10 - 2:13well, it usually goes the way of the dodo.
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2:13 - 2:14(dodo squawking)
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2:14 - 2:17Just one language has ever
come back from the dead: -
2:17 - 2:19Hebrew.
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2:19 - 2:21It was extinct for two millennia,
-
2:21 - 2:24but Jewish settlers to Palestine
in the early 20th centuries -
2:24 - 2:27spoke different languages back in Europe,
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2:27 - 2:31and they adopted Hebrew on their arrival
as their common language. -
2:31 - 2:32It became Israel's official language
-
2:32 - 2:35when the country
was fully established in 1948, -
2:35 - 2:37and now has 7 million speakers.
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2:38 - 2:40Now, Hebrew is the world's
only fully revived language -
2:40 - 2:43but others are trying.
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2:43 - 2:45Cornish, spoken in southwestern England,
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2:45 - 2:47died out two centuries ago.
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2:47 - 2:51But today there are several hundred
speakers of the revived language. -
2:51 - 2:52(cow mooing)
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2:52 - 2:56Practicality aside, human diversity
is a good thing in its own right. -
2:56 - 2:58Imagine going on an exciting holiday
-
2:58 - 3:03only to find that the food,
clothing, buildings, the people, -
3:03 - 3:05and yes, the language,
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3:05 - 3:07was just the same as back home.
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3:07 - 3:09Oliver Wendell Holmes put it well:
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3:09 - 3:13"Every language is a temple
in which the soul of those who speak -
3:13 - 3:14it is enshrined."
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3:14 - 3:19Moving that soul of the people
from a temple into a museum -
3:19 - 3:20just isn't the same thing.
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3:20 - 3:21♪ (classical music) ♪
- Title:
- Why do languages die? | The Economist
- Description:
-
There are more than 7,000 languages. The number of people speaking English, Spanish and Mandarin continues to grow, but every fortnight a langauge will disappear forever. The Economist's language expert Lane Greene explains why.
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Follow us on Medium: https://medium.com/@the_economist - Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- Amplifying Voices
- Project:
- Endangered Languages
- Duration:
- 03:27
Marta Quirós Alarcón edited English subtitles for Why do languages die? | The Economist | ||
Maurício Kakuei Tanaka edited English subtitles for Why do languages die? | The Economist | ||
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